


Dénouement

by transgressiveTechnician



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-31
Updated: 2015-03-31
Packaged: 2018-03-20 12:05:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3649695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transgressiveTechnician/pseuds/transgressiveTechnician
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I mainlined Black Butler in less than a day and was inspired to write my first fanfic. I think it will have many short chapters? Set after the end of the anime, spoilers abound. If you hate spoilers, probably best not to read.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Metaphysically Complicated

For a time they ride in silence and Ciel is glad for it. He's grown so used to Sebastian's presence that the butler is easy to ignore. As for Sebastian's part in their little drama, the demon has done nothing but sit opposite him and brood in an equally grim silence.

The butler said he had handled everything. The estate, as well as a generous trust had been left to Ciel's servants. It was enough, Sebastian had explained, that money would not be a concern for them. Perhaps not for their children either, if they managed it properly. Ciel had no doubt that they would not. The company had been transferred to Elizabeth's parents and Ciel supposed they would be happy with that - he was fond of Elizabeth, but money had been the motivating factor behind the prolonged engagement, after all.

_It would suit her_ , he thought without humour, _a career of bringing happiness to children_. 

The rest of the money had been divided and invested according to Sebastian's instructions. Money was something that would quickly grow to bore him or so the demon claimed, but he still needed it. Certainly there were material matters that no longer concerned him. He couldn't die of hunger of thirst. There was no need to sleep or seek shelter from the cold or the fear of illness - but if one was looking for somewhere to languish away eternity, it had may as well be somewhere comfortable.

He was inclined to agree.

"So I can't die?" Ciel had asked, when they had first set out.

"Of course you can die," Sebastian had retorted, a thread of annoyance fraying his voice before he had added, "young master."

"But you were shot in the head." _And stabbed, and raked, and cut, and burned_ , Ciel thought. Sebastian had suffered enough wounds to kill a hundred men, most of them inflicted on the multiple occasions he shielded the Phantomhive heir with his body. 

"Indeed I was, and you to have nothing to fear from any mortal weapon," Sebastian said, falling easily into his old role, attentive but distant, "but you are hardly as immortal as you think. A demon or angel's blade or a Reaper's scythe might cut you down."

"Is that what you used to kill Claude?" Ciel watched intently, but Sebastian's face betrayed no reaction. 

"Yes," was the only answer before his butler fell silent.

A mile clicked by in silence.

"Could we get one?" Ciel asked. "A demon blade would be a powerful motivator for these enemies you claim we have to leave us be."

The idea of having enemies was not new to Ciel Phantomhive, even at the tender age of thirteen. It had been one of the reasons that Sebastian had insisted they remain on Earth. According to him, British politics were nothing compared to infernal ones, and no demon was without enemies - both prosaic and exotic. Claude and Hannah's own allies might be incited act against them under the pretense of revenge (a powerful demonic motivator, or so his butler said). Sebastian's enemies might see his position as weakness and go for his throat. It was infuriating, since Ciel still considered himself the master of their relationship, but he had been thrust into a situation where he was forced to act in almost complete ignorance. And as Sebastian was prone to reminding him of late, he was not an Earl in Hell. 

He had considered ordering Sebastian not to speak unless spoken to, but he wouldn't put it past the demon to allow him to stumble blindly into some supernatural political quandary and get killed. Then he would be free of the vexing child he had once found so desirable. It was how Ciel saw it, in any case.

"A blade and sheath are one being, my Lord. Composed of a singular mind. A perfect weapon in service to a perfect will. A wise summoner would lay the mark on the blade and not the puppet, but a demon cannot summon another demon."

"...but one demon can bind another." Ciel forced neutrality into his voice.

"Our situation is not without precedent," Sebastian's eyes met his as they passed the outer borders of the Phantomhive estate, "but it's metaphysically complicated."


	2. Perfectly Capable

They stay in a hotel in the city and things are different somehow. No Finnian, Mey-Rin, and Baldroy to weave an increasingly intricate knot of catastrophes for Sebastian to untangle. Ciel wondered if Sebastian had employed them simply to give himself a venue for showing off in front of his master. _He probably did_. No missives from the Queen. No Elizabeth. No conversations about business. No lessons with tutors.

Ciel had asked for dinner and Sebastian ordered it up from the hotel's kitchen. When he thought on it, he realized that in the three years they had been together, he had never seen Sebastian eat, or drink for that matter. He had suddenly wanted to ask why, but absurdly felt like that would be showing ignorance in front of his servant. Instead he ate pointedly, lifting forkfuls of food to his mouth far to quickly for it to be polite.

"It doesn't taste like anything," Ciel said, frowning.

"Nonetheless, my Lord should finish his dinner," Sebastian's lips curved up into a smile, "unless he wants the manager to send up another meal as recompense."

"You could have told me that I couldn't eat instead of allowing me to make a fool of myself," he felt flushed with anger, but he turned back to the plate and ate hurriedly. Better that than a potentally exhausting conversation with a hotel manager. And worse than that was the nagging, gnawing hunger still present at the edge of his mind.

"You're perfectly capable of doing so if you choose." Sebastian was already clearing away the setting, almost before he was finished with it, and Ciel glared at him. "Especially if you intend to continue pretending to be human."

After dinner he let Sebastian undress him and help him into the bath, it did nothing to soothe his mind, but it was easy enough to go through their old motions.

"Am I going to be a man?" Ciel asks absently as the demon runs his fingers through his hair, washing it. Bathing. It was another thing to add to the growing list of things he had never seen Sebastian do. He wondered if he hadn't noticed before or if he simply hadn't cared.

"You already are a man," Sebastian said. "I've seen you undressed enough to be quite sure, Lord."

Almost without realizing or willing it, Ciel's hand sort up from under the water and struck the demon across the face. Hard enough, in his opinion, because he felt his palm sting. "Don't mock me. I meant like you."

"I see." The butler's head snapped away, but there was no other reaction and he continued working as though it had never happened. "That's a difficult question to answer."

"I really can't see how."

"Well," Sebastian said, stray drops of water curling down his cheek from the slap, "Firstly because I'm not a man. If you're asking if you'll get older, your physical form can get older in time, if you wish for it."

Ciel's lips curled into a sneer. "I don't see--" Of course, other than the tailcoat, he had never seen Sebastian take any of his clothes off either. "Really?"

"I have physical traits that humans often choose to define as 'masculine'," Sebastian shrugged, "and that comparison doesn't offend me, but yes. Really."

"Could I have a child?"

"Ah, now I see where this was leading. No. It doesn't work that way for demons."

"So then the Phantomhive name is dead?"

"Come young master," The demon rests one hand on his shoulder. "Let's get you ready for bed."


End file.
